CN plans to spend $2.5 billion in 2017 to improve its core infrastructure, which includes replacement of 2.2 million rail ties, installation of more than 966 km (600 miles) of new rail, and work in bridges, branch line upgrades and other general track maintenance.

Hypertherm is holding its "Spark Something Great" education grant program again in 2017. The contest is open to Canadian and US schools and 10 North American winners will receive Hypertherm's new Powermax45 XP plasma cutting and gouging system and the company's Plasma Cutting Technology: Theory and Practice curriculum kit.

Hobart Institue of Technology (HIWT) in Troy, OH, has opened the "Next Generatin Welder Learning Facility. The (16,000 sq ft) facility began to host classes in late October and is an important addition to the (13-acre) campus that has trained more than 100,000 welders.

A Canadian firm with an innovative high speed robotic weld cladding process has received a Japanese patent and is on its way to obtaining a European patent to expand the use of the process around the globe.